What Our Clients Say

Coordinated Movements, Inc. loves to hear feedback. We receive our feedback by having parents fill out a short summary of what “worked for them” and their child. Please read below the stories the parents have shared.

A Girl’s Hammock — An OT at Coordinated Movements, Inc. recommended many helpful things for our child, and they’ve always worked as intended. We were hesitant, however, about getting a hammock, because we figured they’d be very expensive and if she didn’t like it we’d be out of the money.

Guess what? When I bought the hammock at Wal-Mart I almost cried. Why? Because it was only $8.00. As you know, everything our children require is usually expensive. However, this $8.00 hammock has brought our daughter so much joy and relaxation.

When she’s uptight, she swings in it by laying sideways and pushing off her wall. We’re afraid that one day she’ll end up busting her way into the living room doing that, but it works so we’ll worry about the home repair when the time comes. When she hits too hard you always hear a “Sorry!,” so I suppose you could say it also helps her social skill development. She hangs in her hammock for hours at a time, listening to music, reading or writing lists. When she can’t sleep at night, she crawls into her hammock and relaxes.

We hung the hammock using 2 toggle bolts screwed into studs in her walls. We hung it over her bed, because I was afraid if she fell she’d hurt herself if she hit the floor. She’s never fallen out, though.

The hammock is quite entertaining as well. Her kitty, thinks that if the hammock if good enough for our daughter, then it’s good enough for her as well. She jumps in, all 7 legs go through the holes in the hammock, and she just hangs there looking pathetic until our daughter rescues her. So, I guess you could say that the hammock is helping her enrich her empathy skills as well!

Thanks Coordinated Movements, for helping us find an easy “home improvement” to help our daughter relax, and have her own “safe” place to go to to unwind.

Brushing Protocol — My son, as an infant, did not want me to touch him while he was nursing. He hated to have water on his head. He is very particular about the way his blankets are arranged. He started putting his pillow on top of himself when he was sleeping. We have done the brushing and deep pressure protocol for two weeks. Since we started brushing, his emotional outbursts have decreased by at least half. He is much easier to reason with. He has stopped putting pillows on himself and he now pours cups of water over his own head in the bath tub. YEA! No more screaming in the tub.

Transitioning — My son always had a tough time when a change occurred from what he was doing. Example – he’d be playing in the sandbox at preschool and it would be time to leave. His teacher would tell him to get his bag etc. and he would throw a fit. If friends came to our house and it was time for them to leave the same thing happened. Dinner time, my son would yell and scream because he was busy playing or watching TV. Together with a therapist, I decided that if I counted the time away it would prepare my son for any challenge that we know was about to happen. I would tell him that “We have 10 minutes then we’ll be leaving” or “We have 10 minutes then your friends will be leaving.” Then “We have five minutes,” “One minute,” “Okay it’s time.” He really went along with this and today he’s almost eight years old and we still do this. My friends do this with their children or when they come over to prepare my son. If we know a change is happening, and can prepare him, we have no more tantrums. It worked for me!

Kinesio Tape– My daughter has low muscle tone and has had a lot of trouble with bowel movements. She is now 4 and we have been to numerous GI doctors, and tried several medications for treatment. After starting PT a short time ago, I have found improvement in this area when the PT began using Kinesio Tape. The PT has been taping her abdomen, with the combination of exercise and decreasing the amount of dairy products, has helped. The muscles seem to be stronger and she is passing stools with no problems now. The Kinesio taping has continued to be a huge success.

Coordinated Movements Overall — It comes to mind when I start to recall our history that everything has worked! Our son went from extremes of “shut down” where he seemed to tune out, to “melt down” where he lost control over what seems to be something so small. This went on for many years, the bigger he became, the harder it was to control. He too hated the bath tub, never wanting water over his head. Now he takes a shower. WOW! In just a few weeks after starting the therapy he would allow us to wash his hair without the screaming and slashing. He eventually told us that it used to feel like we were pouring fire over his head.

He has had Therapeutic Listening, Occupational Therapy, Brushing, Joint Compression and much more. Most recently we just completed the Interactive Metronome. Our son repeated Kindergarten, since we just realized he must have been in “shut down” most of the year. A Kindergarten classroom can be a sensory child’s nightmare. It was a week or two after that first year of Kindergarten when we first came to Coordinated Movements. In a month he became a new child. By fall, he had the same teacher, and she told use that we brought back a totally different boy. We continued therapy and he progressed well. School did become more difficult, as it should. Each time we reevaluated his therapy and he would do much better. By the end of first grade he continued to struggle with reading. He was at the first grade one month reading level. We started Interactive Metronome in the late summer finishing up in early fall. At his first conference he increased his reading level from first grade one month to a full middle second grade level. I was so surprised! The teacher wasn’t told before second grade about his struggles. We wanted her to see him as just him, not a child who needs extra help. I went prepared with his therapy binder in hand to show why he wasn’t doing well. But, as I said he not only was doing well, he was excelling. We went from reading books that had six word sentences on a page to full chapter books. I attribute the reading success to the Interactive Metronome. In just a small amount of time he gained so much. There are many success stories about his therapy. In his two years of therapy we have seen a boy who couldn’t swing on a swing, or go across monkey bars, who can now drive a go-cart like a typical boy. We have other things we continue to work on in therapy, and our family has benefited so much. Our home is more calm. As calm as it can be with out eight year old, five year old, almost four year old and our new addition coming in Spring. I can’t imagine how he coped those first six years of life with everything that must have bothered him. I have shared our success story with many parents and especially those with infants that seem to have sensory defensiveness. I wish we started earlier. Share your success stories with everyone…

About Us

Coordinated Movements, Inc. has been serving the Southern Maryland community since March 1999. We specialize in pediatric occupational, physical and speech-language therapy.

We are a group of devoted, caring professionals making a difference by helping children to be their very best.